Red-baiting of Yolanda survivors shows Lacson as unfit, Aquino’s rehab plan as bogus

By People Surge
February 21, 2014

TACLOBAN CITY – The alliance of typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) survivors said today that reconstruction head Panfilo Lacson's redbaiting of them shows that the Aquino government has no one capable in charge of rebuilding, and that its plan itself is bogus. “Lacson's smearing of the Yolanda survivors is rubbing salt into our wounds and should not be dignified with a response,” said Dr. Efleda Bautista, storm survivor and convenor of People Surge.

Dr. Efleda Bautista adds, “He does not respond promptly but engages in smear campaign rather than take accountability with the government’s snail-paced response on legitimate issues raised by Yolanda survivors. He is in effect turning his back against his own statement that his office, achieving not even ten percent of the target, is a lame duck in the face of Aquino’s government callousness during the first 100 days from Yolanda’s wreck in Eastern Visayas.”

“It is also unseemly for the Aquino government to question the motives of Bayan and its associates in helping the Yolanda survivors, when the support of everyone willing to help in a time of humanitarian crisis is welcome. Moreover, it is not Bayan or People Surge alone that has criticized the Aquino government response to Yolanda, but also the international community including the United Nations, because everyone is interested that the administration get its act together in the common goal of helping the survivors.”

Dr. Efleda also responded to Lacson that it was not the Yolanda survivors who were destabilizing the country but the Aquino government itself. “Eastern Visayas has been left in a state of socio-economic ruin. The major cash and staple crops are devastated. The people lost homes and livelihood and face looming starvation. But the government reconstruction plan is not addressing basic problems. Such as recovery in agriculture, on which most of the people depend, and where the losses in the region alone amount to P65 billion while the government reconstruction estimate is P18.7 billion for all affected regions.

“Meanwhile, the government reconstruction plan is throwing away hundreds of billions of pesos on construction contracts, which will be grabbed up by corrupt officials and big business cronies. What comes next to that? Just this week, we tried to initiate a dialogue with the President but he responded with arrogance and rejection even before reading our petition. Who is now destabilizing the country by aggravating the socio-economic crisis, worsening corruption in the government, and putting private profit over public service?”